Serbian Language for the European Union – Initiative for Equality of the Serbian Language in Montenegro

In Montenegro, a candidate country for European Union membership, the largest segment of citizens—43.18%—speak the Serbian language. It is the language with the single most speakers in the state. In addition to Serbs, who constitute 33% of the total population, it is spoken by approximately 60,000 national Montenegrins, as well as Bosniaks, Croats, Roma, and other national communities. Beyond being a linguistic and cultural fact, the Serbian language represents a powerful cohesive factor and engine of inclusion in civic society.

Not only is the Serbian language spoken today by the greatest number of Montenegrin citizens, but historically it has the longest presence in this country. Some of the oldest monuments of Serbian literacy and Cyrillic heritage, such as the 12th-century Miroslav Gospel, originated on the territory of modern-day Montenegro. Montenegro was also home to one of the oldest Slavic and Cyrillic printing houses, and the first Serbian printing house, while its oldest printed books, such as the Cetinje Oktoih, date back to 1494.

The continuity of the Serbian language is also an essential constituent of the independent and internationally recognized Principality, later Kingdom of Montenegro, from the 19th and early 20th centuries. State institutions, schools, and civic bodies functioned exclusively in the Serbian language; state printing houses published Serbian readers, primers, and grammars of the Serbian language recognized by the legal system.

Nonetheless, the Serbian language was an incontrovertible fact even prior to the acquisition of state independence and sovereignty: thus in Cetinje in 1836 the “Serbian Primer” was published (for the education of youth) and in 1838 the “Serbian Reader for Montenegrin Youth”. The presence of the Serbian language is affirmed by extensive archival materials, student diplomas, legal acts, as well as a rich literary heritage.